After Atlantis docks with the station Sunday, its seven-member crew will begin preparing the two modules of the ISS already in orbit for the arrival of the Russian service module Zvezda scheduled for July.

Equipment will be loaded onto the station for use by crews arriving later in the year.

Assembled in December 1998, the space station is currently comprised of two modules -- the US-built Unity and the Russian module Zarya.

If Zvezda is launched as planned, there will be at least four more space flights to the station until the end of the year -- three by US shuttle and one by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The missions will be used to add new elements to the structure that will eventually weigh 450 tonnes and bring in the station's first crew, which will be made up of one American and two Russians, according to space officials.

About 40 space missions will be necessary between now and 2005 to finish the giant laboratory, which will be permanently housing six- or seven-person crews that will be rotated after stays of about five months each.

The 60-billion-dollar project has also a lot of critics, whose arguments have been boosted by a recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the US Congress, which said the the Russian modules Zarya and Zvezda were not up to all US security standards and were not sufficiently protected from meteorites and space debris.

GAO also said that the level of noise inside Zaria was too high.

However, Bob Cabana, deputy ISS manager for international operation, assured in the lead-up to the Atlantis launch that the problems would be resolved.

"We know what we need to do and we are going to do it," he said. "We are going to build the space station."

During the Atlatis mission, the astronauts will change three batteries and install fans to prevent the accumulation of polluted air in the Zarya module. Then they will transfer from the shuttle to the ISS one ton of US and Russian equipment, including computers, exercise equipment and clothing for use by the space station crew later in the year.

The mission is to feature a six-hour space walk in which astronauts Jeffrey Williams and James Voss will secure a mechanical arm that was attached to the exterior of the Unity module during a mission June of last year and which has had persistent problems.

They will also install security rails to the exterior of the ISS, to help future maintenance missions, and repair an antenna.

The shuttle will move Zarya and Unity some 32 kilometers (19 miles) further from the earth, as they are losing 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) in altitude each week. This orbit maintenance operation will be completed by the Russian service module, Zvezda, scheduled for launch in July.

The astronauts are also carrying with them an Olympic torch and flag that will be used to launch the summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, in September.

When the shuttle return to Earth, the torch will be taken to Greece where it will be lit before being carried to Australia for the opening ceremony of the games.

Although this will be Atlantis' 21st mission, the space shuttle has not flown since 1997. A number of upgrades have been made to it, including a reworking of the control panel to make it more effective in crises.

The shuttle is scheduled to return to Earth on May 29.

RLV NEWS
Atlantis Roars Into Orbit
by Guy Clavel
Cape Canaveral (AFP) May 19, 2000 - The US space shuttle Atlantis was on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) Friday after a spectacular dawn launch from the Kennedy Space Center.